


First Day

by sunalso



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy Era, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Fluff, Repeated day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-27 02:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18295292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunalso/pseuds/sunalso
Summary: Academy Era AU. Soulmate AU. Fitz’s first day at the Academy isn’t that much fun. When he wakes up to the same day again, he knows his soulmate is close. If he wants to see tomorrow, he needs to find her.Beta'd by Gort.





	First Day

First days of anything were always difficult. Fitz pulled his quilt up to his chin and sighed. He was completely knackered. The Academy was big, with a lot of people he didn’t know in it, and while his classes had been fun and he’d been excited to start on a few new projects, mostly he felt isolated and alone.

He was younger than everyone else and felt like absolutely everyone knew that. He’d spoken to no one and had sat in the back of all his classes, trying not to stick out too much.

At least no one had bullied him yet.

Sleep came easily. Tomorrow would be easier.

****

The alarm on Fitz’s mobile beeped, and he turned it off without opening his eyes. When it went off again, he managed to turn silence it and stand. Blearily, he headed for the loo.

He had a piss and headed back to his room, yawning. A hand landed on his shoulder. “You ready for the first day of classes, Fitz?” It was they guy who had the dorm room across from Fitz’s. Fitz’s head swam with deja-vu. It’d been the exact same greeting the day before.

“What kind of a joke is that?” Fitz mumbled, trying to shrug off the hand on him. The bloke was tall, black, and had a doctorate from Harvard in microbiology. Fitz was pretty certain the guy’s name was Mack.

“Joke?”

“You said that yesterday, it’s the bloody second day of school. Should I expect this every morning?”

Mack’s mouth fell open, and his brows went sky high. “No, um, nope. It’s not. It’s September first.” He pulled his mobile out and shoved it at Fitz’s face. Sure enough, that was the date.

Fitz swayed on his feet, and Mack steadied him with a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”

“No,” Fitz said weakly. “I already lived through this day.”

“Damn.” Mack patted his shoulder. “Good luck figuring out who it is.”

“Well, I know it’s not you.”

Mack laughed and rolled his eyes. “You should be so lucky.” He gave Fitz a push towards his dorm room and waved at him. “Try talking to some people. Hopefully, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Fitz dressed, put his mobile and notebooks in his bag, and walked to his first class. He sat in a different spot, he tried talking to the girl next to him, but she barely glanced at him.

Soulmates were supposed to have a draw and instant connection, if he met her­ (or him, to be fair), Fitz was just supposed to know. That’s how it went in all the movies.

The day dragged. It was extremely boring to listen to the same lectures over again, but at least this time it kept his head up and studied the other students in his classes. There were plenty of people he found attractive, but for all Fitz knew he brushed passed his soulmate in the cafeteria. It might take him a long time to figure out who he was destined to be with.

In his electro chemistry lecture, he sat a few rows back from the first and leaned over to say hi to the bloke beside him. The guy barely looked at Fitz as he grunted a greeting.

Fitz dragged his hand down his face. His first two classes had been a similar group since they were both engineering focused. This one had a wider swath of the Academy attending, but there was no way to guess if any of the people could be his soulmate.

Keeping his chin propped on his hand, Fitz let the lecture wash over him. He remembered it nearly perfectly from the day before, including the teacher’s pet in the front row that had the answers to every question.

He also knew all the answers but didn’t feel the need to blab quite that much about them.

The woman who apparently knew everything was short with a mass of dark hair and the cutest nose he’d ever seen. She was also fiercely intelligent, and gorgeous in her dark blue skirt and white blouse. Really gorgeous. Completely out of his league beautiful. Though he wouldn’t mind picking her brain.

His thoughts wandered off into imagining her stripping and sitting in his lap. She could still sound prim and lecture on the textbook if she wanted. He wouldn’t mind that at all.

He wanted to talk to her after class, but as soon as the bell rang, she was out of her seat and chatting with someone on the other side of the room.

And who was Fitz kidding? She was the embodiment of every wet dream he’d ever had. Fitz was certain it couldn’t be her. The universe wouldn’t gift wrap someone so amazing for him as his soulmate.

He left and diligently went back to trying to say hello to other students.

It was going to be a long day.

****

Fitz cursed when his alarm went off.

He grabbed his mobile. As he suspected, it was still the first day of school.

Getting up, he hurried through his morning routine, said hello to Mack, and grabbed his bag. He ditched class, hanging out in the cafeteria and common spaces, trying to chat with anyone who looked vaguely familiar.

It was a bust.

****

On the fourth day, Fitz felt dismal. He had to do better. His soulmate was going through the same thing he was. Every day he failed was another time they were forced through the same time loop.

It made him feel less lonely, imagining another person was out there looking for him. Maybe this was like being lost in the woods and he should sit still and wait for his soulmate to find him?

He ditched class again, sitting and reading under one of the trees on campus. Nobody came and chatted with him.

He did see the gorgeous girl from chemistry walking across the quad. She was chatting with a woman and laughing, her hair up in a ponytail and her skirt swishing around her legs.

The image stayed with him, through two chapters of his microengineering textbook, dinner, and her smile was the last thing he thought of as he drifted off to sleep.

****

Fitz groaned and sat up. Yay. Another fun day. He’d beaten his alarm and clicked it off before it could ring.

He rubbed at his eyes. Five first days of school in a row. What a nightmare.

What should he do today? Looking all over hadn’t worked. Not looking all over hadn’t worked either, though he was now ahead in reading for all his classes.

He got dressed, the same outfit as the last five mornings. At least he didn’t have to do laundry. Mostly he just wanted to find his person. This day on repeat was the loneliest he’d been. Even as a scared kid at university getting a degree alongside people three times his age.

In the hallway, Mack put a hand on his shoulder. “You ready for the first day of class, Fitz?”

He sighed. “Mack, this is the fifth time I’ve lived through this day. I’m trying to find my soulmate, and we’re not connecting. Another person is going round and round because I can’t get this right.”

Mack frowned. “Hey, it’ll be something to laugh at later.”

“Sure.”

“Here, let me help you.”

“What?” Fitz looked up at the guy. Mack tugged Fitz’s tie off, undid his collar, and rolled up the sleeves of his plaid button up.

“There you go. You look a little less like you’re a baby.”

“Thank you, I think.”

Mack crossed his arms. “Has there been anyone that’s stood out to you during the last few day at all?”

“Just this girl from my chemistry class, but she’s way out of my league.”

“Talk to her. The very worst that can happen is that she forgets about it when the day starts over.”

Fitz sighed. “Right, okay.” It was sound advice that annoyed him because it was so correct.

“Good luck.”

Mack walked off, and Fitz bit his lip as he clutched his tie in his hands. Fine, he’d do it Mack’s way.

He went to his classes, listening to the lectures for the third time and probably looking like a complete git because he didn’t write down any notes.

He got to chemistry early, and sat in the front row, right beside the desk the woman had chosen. When she came and sat down, he turned to her. Fitz couldn’t speak.

She wasn’t wearing the same clothes as the other days. She had a pink jumper on that hugged her curves and a pair of jeans.

Not a blue skirt.

His heart skipped two or three beats, his stomach lurched, and his tongue felt too big for his mouth.

Slowly, he forced his gaze up from her chest to face. She looked close to tears.

“Hello,” she said softly. “You skipped class for two days, and you were wearing a tie and sitting in the back the last time I saw you.”

“Mrgh,” he managed.

“I’m Jemma Simmons, biochem.”

Fitz shakily got to his feet, took two steps around the desks until he was right beside her, and then his legs gave out. He ended up kneeling on the floor at her feet and collapsed forward to rest his cheek against her knee. Too many big emotions for him to name were rolling through him, and all he could do was tremble.

“Jemma,” he finally said as she threaded a hand into his hair. Her fingers shook too. “I’m sorry, I should have…sorry. Five bloody days.”

“That’s not very long,” she said, cheerily. “Do you have a name, soulmate?”

“Fitz, um, Leopold, but nobody calls me that.”

“Fitz it is.” Her voice was melodic and beautiful. “I’m from Sheffield.”

“Glasgow.”

“And we had to come to the other side of the planet to find each other.” Her fingers tenderly stroked his head.

“You're so pretty. I thought it couldn’t be you.”

Her laugh was light, and when he looked up at her, Jemma’s cheeks were flushed.

“You’re pretty cute yourself.” Her expression became flustered, and her blush deepened.

His heart went gooey. His soulmate thought he was cute and was nervous too.

Someone cleared their throat, and Fitz looked over his shoulder. The professor was glaring at them.

“Well,” the prof said. “I’m glad you find each other cute, but this is­ hardly—”

Jemma stood, and Fitz scrambled to his feet as well. “With all due respect, sir,” Jemma said, gathering up her things. Fitz grabbed his backpack as well. “I’ve listened to this lecture four times and corrected you four times on your graphic showing electric dipolorization. Please reconsider the charges. My soulmate and I will be in class on Wednesday.”

Taking Fitz’s hand, she tugged him down the aisle between desks and out into the hallway, her shoulders squared and chin high. He was already arse over teakettle in love with her.

Once they were alone, she dropped his hand and wrapped her arms around his neck. He settled his arms about her waist. He’d never held someone before. Certainly not someone as amazing as his soulmate. Her cheek was against his, and she was so warm and shaped just right to fit against him.

There was a tickle as her eyelashes swept against his skin. She shifted and looked up into his face.

“You have pretty eyes,” she said, her own memorizing honey-tea ones disappearing as her lids closed. She leaned up and kissed him.

It was soft and tentative. Jemma’s lips were warm, and Fitz couldn’t help pulling her closer and pressing his mouth more firmly against hers.

She made a heady, needy noise that rolled through him like a peel of thunder.

He broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against hers, trying to catch his breath. It would have been awkward, except that Jemma was panting too and looked just as gobsmacked.

She stared into his eyes, and he was almost dizzy from the feeling that he was, at long last, right where he belonged.

“I want to get to know everything about you,” she said.

“We could hang out in my room.” He winced, hoping she didn’t think he was being too direct. “And talk.”

A smile played over her lips. “I’d like that. Talking.” She bit her lip. “And kiss?”

He was never, ever, going to be able to deny her anything. “And kiss.”

****

The alarm on his mobile went off. It was silenced in the next second by someone who wasn’t him.

“I don’t want to get up,” Jemma mumbled. They’d talked until they couldn’t keep their eyes open and had fallen asleep cuddled together on his bed, still fully clothed.

“Me either, but we can’t miss our second day of classes.” He didn’t move, just stroked Jemma’s hair. She was the most fascinating person he’d ever met. He’d felt like he’d been catapulted into the stratosphere.

“I know,” she mumbled, nuzzling at his jaw. Her lips found his, and they kissed softly.

After a few minutes, they had to separate and get up. Jemma had packed a lot of her clothes and toiletries the day before and had brought them with her to his room. It was startlingly intimate to watch her dress and brush her teeth.

When they were ready, they left and walked down the hall, his arm around her waist as they discussed one of the theories in the chemistry text and how they might prove or disprove it.

“Happy second day of school,” Mack said as he walked towards his room, a cup of coffee in his hand. “And is this the girl from chemistry?”

Fitz grinned and made introductions.

“Five days isn’t so bad,” Mack said when Fitz was done explaining everything.

Jemma shook her head but wrinkled her nose. “It’s alarmingly average.”

Mack laughed. “I think it’s the last time you two will ever have to worry about being average.” He shook his head and continued down the hall.

“You’re absolutely above average,” Fitz said to Jemma.

“I believe you mean we’re above average.” She kissed his cheek. Fitz felt like his feet were hardly touching the floor.

It was truly the first day of the rest of his life, and it was going to be a magnificent lifetime spent with Jemma. “Well above average.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
